the Seven" that put down the conspiracy of the Magi. In the second
division, where the Argive mercenaries served, the Greek leader was
Nicostratus, the Persian Aristazanes, a court usher, and one of the most
trusted friends of the king. Mentor and the eunuch Bagoas, Ochus's chief
minister in his later years, were at the head of the third division,
Mentor commanding his own mercenaries, and Bagoas the Greeks whom Ochus
had levied in his own dominions, together with a large body of Asiatics.
The king himself was sole commander of the fourth division, as well as
commander-in-chief of the entire host. Nekht-nebf, on his side, was only
able to oppose to this vast array an army less than one-third of the
size. He had enrolled as many as sixty thousand of the Egyptian warrior
class, and had the services of twenty thousand Greek mercenaries, and of
about the same number of Libyan troops.

Pelusium, as usual, was the first point of attack. Nekht-nebf had taken
advantage of the long delay of Ochus in Syria to see that the defences
of Egypt were in good order; he had made preparations for resistance at
all the seven mouths of the Nile, and had guarded Pelusium with especial
care. Ochus, as he had expected, advanced along the coast route which
led to this place. Part of his army traversed the narrow spit of land
which separated the Lake Serbonis from the Mediterranean, and in doing
so met with a disaster. A strong wind setting in from the north, as the
troops were passing, brought the waters of the Mediterranean over the
low strip of sand which is ordinarily dry, and confounding sea and shore
and lake together, caused the destruction of a large detachment; but the
main army, which had probably kept Lake Serbonis on the right, reached
its destination intact. A skirmish followed between the Theban troops of
the first division under Lacrates and the garrison of Pelusium under
Philophron; but this first engagement was without definite result.

The two armies lay now for a while on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile,
which was well protected by forts, fortified towns, and a network of
canals on either side of it. There was every reason to expect that
Nekht-nebf, by warily guarding his frontier, and making full use of his
resources, might baffle for a considerable time, if not wholly
frustrate, the Persian attack. But his combined self-conceit and
timidity ruined his cause. Taking the direction of affairs wholly upon
himself and asking no a